CHICAGO — The end of the season might be the only thing that can stop Ryan Dempster.
Dempster opened Chicago's seven-game homestand on Tuesday by blanking Pittsburgh in a 6-0 Cubs win. It was his first shutout since July 3, 2001, against Montreal, and third career shutout, as he lowered his ERA over his past four outings to 0.84.
Unfortunately for Dempster and the Cubs, the Rockies' 7-5 walk-off win over the Brewers in 11 innings knocked them out of playoff contention.
Dempster (11-8) missed almost four weeks in July with a fractured toe, and manager Lou Piniella theorized that the time off has kept Dempster's arm fresh down the stretch.
"It seems like it," Dempster said. "I definitely feel good. I feel like it's unfortunate it seems like the season is coming to an end for us, or is coming to an end, because I feel like I'd like to keep throwing for a while. I feel stronger than I did early on in the year."
Staked to a 3-0 first-inning lead, Dempster held the Pirates to five hits and has not allowed an earned run in his past 26 innings at Wrigley Field. He will get one more start there, against Arizona on the season's final day, and will need five innings to reach his goal of 200 for the season.
"He's a professional, is what he is," Piniella said. "That's the best way to describe him."
The Cubs beat the Pirates for the seventh straight time, as Pittsburgh committed three errors that led to three unearned runs and helped knock out starter Kevin Hart after four innings. Hart (4-9) was pitching at Wrigley Field for the first time since the Cubs traded him to the Pirates on July 30.
His former teammates knew what to expect and employed a patient approach that yielded four walks. They scored three times in the first, highlighted by Jeff Baker's two-run double.
"We've seen him," Baker said. "Obviously guys know him here and then we faced him in Pittsburgh. We were just trying to wait him out early. We got some runs across the board early and gave Demp a chance to settle in. The first inning kind of set the tone, and we just rolled from there."
The Cubs broke open the game with a three-run fourth, aided by an infield single, a walk and an error. Derrek Lee had the big hit, bouncing a two-run single just past shortstop Luis Cruz.
That was more than enough support for Dempster. After working out of a two-on, two-out jam in the second, he never again let more than one runner reach base in an inning. Neil Walker led off the eighth with a double, but Dempster retired the final six batters of the game in order to secure his third career shutout.
"He's unbelievable," Baker said. "He had great tempo going throughout the whole game. He threw strikes. He pounded the zone. He wasn't out there trying to strike everybody out. He pitched to contact, and he got strikeouts when he needed them."
It was the second shutout by a Cubs pitcher in four games, as Carlos Zambrano tossed one Friday in San Francisco. Dempster said Zambrano's performance inspired him. He also said he was motivated to help the Cubs finish strong, even after they were eliminated from making the postseason.
"Just because you're out of it, it doesn't mean you give up," Dempster said. "Like we've kind of all said since things kind of turned for the worse, we're still playing with a lot of pride, and we go out there and compete, no matter what the situation is all the way until the last day of the year. I think that's real important. I think it's important for our fans to see how much we want to compete and do well and go forward into next year."